Re:Interesting facts I've learned about wildfires over the y...
by kqr on Friday January 30, 2026 @12:21AM
(#46820816)
Awesome article. If anyone wants to learn more about wildfire firefighting from the boots-on-the-ground perspective, I can warmly recommend Matthew Desmond's On the Fireline: Living and Dying with Wildland Firefighters.
It taught me a lot that surprised me and is also mentioned in TFA, such as
- The main weapon against wildfires is dirt, not water. Wildfires burn so vigorously that trying to extingush with water is like pissing into a bonfire.
- Water is used to cool down firefighters, though. It is also used in places the fire hasn't yet reached to slow down its progress.
- Firefighters don't say "vegetation" or "trees" or "moss", they say "fuel".
- Controlled burns are an effective thing even though it meets political resistance.
- Firelines are like dirt roads except completely bare of fuel.
- Crown fires are terrifying.
- Looking for smoldering underground after a wildfire is important and extremely labour intensive.
- Fires travel faster downwind and uphill.
- The PPE a wildland firefighter carries may give them a few more minutes of oxygen if they end up surrounded by fire but it won't save their lives in most situations.
It taught me a lot that surprised me and is also mentioned in TFA, such as
- The main weapon against wildfires is dirt, not water. Wildfires burn so vigorously that trying to extingush with water is like pissing into a bonfire.
- Water is used to cool down firefighters, though. It is also used in places the fire hasn't yet reached to slow down its progress.
- Firefighters don't say "vegetation" or "trees" or "moss", they say "fuel".
- Controlled burns are an effective thing even though it meets political resistance.
- Firelines are like dirt roads except completely bare of fuel.
- Crown fires are terrifying.
- Looking for smoldering underground after a wildfire is important and extremely labour intensive.
- Fires travel faster downwind and uphill.
- The PPE a wildland firefighter carries may give them a few more minutes of oxygen if they end up surrounded by fire but it won't save their lives in most situations.